Saturday, 16 July 2016

Critical Engagement - DZC Tourney Report

The much heralded OB DZC tournament is finally here. Apart from Sergeant Slaughter (aka Pete) all of the OB crew are taking part. Joe, Ed and myself competing, Dan (the 'odd' Man), and Mike acting as TO.

Above: The tournament in fun swing

My 1000 points of Resistance was as follows:

HQ

M3 Alexander*, AT-77 Lifthawk

Vehicle Detachment

3x Gun Wagons, NT - Kraken

Resistance Band

2x Resistance Fighters, MT- 90 Jackson

2x Resistance Fighters, MT - 90 Jackson

2x Occupation Veterans, MT - 90 Jackson + Spider Launcher

AT-77 Lifthawk

Resistance Band

2x Resistance Fighters, Battle Bus

2x Occupational Veterans

Rusted Fist

2x Mehmed Seige Tank, AT-77 Lifthawk(+AA Cannon)

Infiltrators2x Freeriders

*Yes. I went with no commander, to give me more boots on the ground. I am limited to one command card per turn, and of those, I can only use 'global' cards.

We had four games to play, each lasting one hour and forty five minutes.

Game One - Ground Control (corner deployment) - Tim - ScourgeEach table quarter is a critical location, scoring VP's in turn 3 and 6 (1 vp for holding a quarter, 0 for contesting) Aircraft can score, infantry in buildings wholly within a quarter score double points. There is an objective in large hardened building placed centrally.Maximum VP's available: 10

Tim called me out for the first game. We both play at the club, we had history, and he was looking for revenge. He played with his excellently painted Scourge. The game revolved around his control of the central building with his Eviserators and his level five Desolator (level five! In a 1000 point game!). There was no doubt on who was winning the initiative roll.

Above: Tim's excellent army which won painted.

Tim played well, and made the very most of some luck. I was too timid with my Gun Wagons, used them badly and lost them stupidly. Tim could make the very most of his speed to identify which table quarters needed the required points to score victory points. A good win for Tim. Honour is satisfied.

Above: There is a heavy price to play if you want to move in.

(A particular point of note; two bases of Resistance Fighters, with only one wound, attacked one base of razor worms which played the Enemy Within command card. Tim rolled a six, and that number of attacks were removed from my dice and given to the Worms. Once the dice had settled, all the fighters were dead and none of the worms were scratched).

Game Two - Take and Extract - Amit - ScourgeThe Focal Point is a critical location and scores on turns 2, 4 and 6 (1 vp for most units worth, 0 for contesting).An objective is placed in a large hardened building in each players half (central and past the quarter line), 2 objectives are placed either side of the Focal Point in large hardened buildings (along the centreline)Maximum VP's available: 11

Above: Our inspirational TO.

Amit is also from the club and he is a regular tournament attendee. He has a very aggressive approach to playing Scourge and used it to the best effect in this game. Securing the central focal point on turns two and four, plus getting one objective off the table, put him some way ahead. Destroying my troop carrying Lifthawk sealed the deal by the game's end, as I couldn't leave the table with my objective. He lost half of his army, but won the game. Just as Scourge should do it.

Game Three - Surging Strike (corner deployment) - Kannan - UCMThe 2 neutral Focal Points in large buildings (2 VP for holding, 1 for contesting)The home and centre Focal Points are in the open (2 VP for holding, 1 for contesting)Opponents Focal Point is worth an extra VP (3) if you have the most units worth on itMaximum VP's available: 11

Kannan is still learning the game. He is my third opponent of the day who is from the club. I had been on tables opposite Kannan for the first two rounds, at it was clear that he was not getting close to finishing his games on time. That was not going to happen in our game and he was happy to be reminded and cajoled into getting through all six turns.

To achieve this I had to remind him about which units were able to move and fire during his activations. I also gave him advice on what he should be doing and what he should be shooting at. (The more regular readers of my blog will have probably guessed what happened in the game. And you would be correct. With six turns completed, and a good half hour to spare, I had advised him into a victory. Doh!).

Above: Kannan's gun line.

Game Four - Military Complex - Adam - UCMCentral objective gives an extra VP for extracting off of the opponents board edge, and gives no bonus for extracting off of your own board edge.

Maximum VP's available: 11

Adam, guess what, plays at our club. Last game, bottom table, and the four lowest ranked players are only separated by only four points. So, one good game from me and we can extricate myself from wooden spoon notoriety.

In a previous game write-up for Infinity N3 I described how an opponent rolled 3D20s and scored three critical hits at odds of 8000 to 1 against. Well dear reader let me tell you how Adam's game went. His first two objective searches resulted in successful sixes, and he rolled yet another six with his third search. I did managed to find the central objective and get it into a Lifthawk. However, With four dice, needing two sixes, Adam brought the Lifthawk down, and with yet another six destroyed all on board, including the troops, Jackson and objective.

It is safe to say that the dice gods had their favourite. On another particular shooting to hit roll Adam threw 6D6s and rolled six sixes! (At odds of 46,656 to 1 against). The result of the game was a foregone conclusion, without me really having the opportunity to alter the result. I advised Adam to go and buy a lottery ticket ASAP.

Above: 'Did that just happen?'

I enjoyed my four games, with four nice opponents. Obviously my approach during the third game against Kannan was ill advised in a tournament. However, things were not all lost. My opponents had very generously given me high sportsman scores and I won the best sportsman award, and received some Darkops and 4ground buildings.

Thanks to all the participants and for Mike being the very able organiser.

Nice to hear from you Bryan. AD has been very kind and provide some good thoughts below. For those new to tournaments, you must be ready for the different approach that some players take, as apposed to the usual pick-up games at a club, they are definitely there to win and you will not always be offered the opportunity to take something back if you make any silly errors. Obviously, not everyone is going to play hard ball, and during the later games, should you be down the bottom tables, the games should be little less pressurised. My other thought; just enjoy yourself. Chat to people, look at all the models, painting and army compositions. A whole day of hobby is a wonderful thing.

It was great to see you again Alex. I surprised myself by not staying at the bottom table for the whole day.

Bryan P., I think my advice for a novice player would be to take a fairly simple army i.e. one that doesn't rely on lots of less-common special rules, so that you can focus on trying to get the basics right rather than confusing yourself with how to get the most out of the latest and best units.

Probably my other bit of advice would be to come up with a plan. It doesn't matter if it's a bad one, and it doesn't matter if it's a 'plan to lose' (i.e. I'm going to try and grab these 2 objectives, leaving my opponent to get the other 3 meaning that even if everything works perfectly I still won't win).

It can be frustrating being taken apart and feeling that you don't know what you're doing. It's more fun to look back on your game and think 'I know what happened'. If you can say to youself 'this is what I should have done', you'll get more out of the game than if you spent it just dithering because you don't know what to do.

A plan will also hopefully enable you to play faster, which means you and your opponent will both get more out of the game.

All good advice. Thanks chaps. I'm a fairly veteran 40k tournament player so am familiar with the playing mindset. The "stick to a simple list" and "bring a plan" are two excellent points to take away.

I am going to follow both those points for the final escalation league game. Might be enough to take me out of wooden spoon territory!

Always a pleasure to play you Alex, our games always end up being close. I'm still impressed that you got 500 kill points exactly. If you had been a bit luckier with your dice rolls on turn 4 when I was exposed out in the open it could have easily gone your way.

Thank you for your kind comment Amit. Having played both you and Tim on the day, and being impressed on how you used them, and the Monitors and worm application Reaver used by Tim, I am considering a return to the Scourge.